Door

:This article is about the door as an architectural element. There is an article about The Doors who were a four-person musical band of the 1960s and early 1970s.

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A door is a structure in a wall that allows easy conversion between an opening and a closed wall. It is found in many houses and other buildings: internal ones, doors giving access to the street/external world, and doors to private outdoor areas such as a garden or balcony. In an apartment building, an intermediate kind is the outer door of an apartment, inside the building.

Related Topics:
Wall - House - Building - Garden - Balcony - Apartment building - Apartment

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Doors are also found in vehicles, cupboards, cages, etc.

Related Topics:
Vehicle - Cupboard - Cage

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See door furniture for a discussion of attachments to doors such as doorhandles and doorknobs.

Related Topics:
Door furniture - Doorhandle - Doorknob

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The purpose of an opening is:

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• for people, animals and objects to pass; some doors are for emergencies only (emergency exit)
• for ventilation
• for seeing and hearing what happens on the other side - however, some doors are partly or fully made of glass, thereby allowing visibility in any case.

The purpose of a closure is:

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• for preventing air to pass: reducing air drafts and creating an enclosed space that can be heated or cooled more effectively. The use of doors is essential in colder climates where heating would be very difficult without them, and similarly in climates where air conditioning is used. Revolving doors are especially efficient for this purpose.
• for not seeing or hearing what happens on the other side: privacy, avoiding noise
• for preventing falling out of vehicles
• regulation of access. Combined with various types of locks, doors become important safety measures.
• for aesthetics - for example, cupboard doors preventing the sight of the contents.
• for helping prevent fire to spread.

Doors can also have ritual purposes (see Black Rod for an example of the opening and closing of doors having a symbolic meaning).

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A door is usually fastened in a doorway, that is a frame constructed around the edges of a hole in a wall or other containing structure. The two vertical members of the frame are called jambs.

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Door: Types of doors ►